NORWALK -- For artist and Norwalk native John Kurtzman, it has never been enough to rest on a single expertise or one form of art. For Kurtzman, it's all about chasing the next project.

"I create these things and then I move on," Kurtzman said. "I've always been artistically inclined and put my artistic values in front of popular opinion. I had a paintbrush in my hand as a little kid instead of a lollipop."

Among these creations, Kurtzman is well known as one of the only artists in North America who specializes in creating hand-painted canework for automobiles.

"Canework was put on carriages, then things got motorized and the structures changed from wood to metal," Kurtzman said. "The actual cane work doesn't bend with the metal so somewhere in between France and England, someone decided to use paint so it could go around the curves. The paint dries raised."

With the help of his crew to lay out the design, a car's canework may take anywhere from one week to a month to complete.

Among the cars he's painted is a 1930 P-2 Rolls Royce once owned by Joan Fontaine and now part of the Jack Nethercut Collection.

In the early 1970s, Kurtzman was acknowledged as a nationally recognized pinstriper in "The Family Creative Workshop" by Time Life and he has been referred to by long-time customers as "The Von Dutch of the East" -- a title he takes with a grain of salt.

"If Von Dutch came around, I think I'd give him a few pointers," Kurtzman joked.

Kurtzman holds a patent for custom furniture that uses race car exhaust headers as the base of the chair and another patent for his pin-up pinstriping designs.

With his range of interests and talent, it's little surprise that Kurtzman counts Leonardo da Vinci as a role model.

"He was multitalented and innovative with his creations," Kurtzman said.

In his shop on Taylor Avenue, J.G. Kurtzman Sign Shop, Kurtzman has no trouble filling his time between commissions.

Starting his career as an apprentice in a sign shop, he has seen the job change with time and technology.

"When I started, sign makers were artists, today we're seen as vendors," Kurtzman said. "Anyone can sign the check and buy the software. It used to be you would have to go across town, present your drawing, go home and use up all your erasers, go back and present another drawing."

Kurtzman has developed many of his own tools that he uses in his work that continue to serve as his secret weapons. Also top secret, what the future holds for this Norwalk renaissance man.

"There are things I've had on the backburner," Kurtzman said. "I can't tell you what they are, but they will be internationally recognized."